Productive

Happy Monday!

 I have been super productive today: I got my dude up and ready, cleaned the kitchen, made homemade almond buns for him, washed and dried three loads of laundry, changed the sheets on our bed, made a couple of phone calls and even started packing for our upcoming trip to Portugal!

So I have guilt-free time for a little blogging.

I feel like I've been pretty productive as far as scrapping goes lately, but I haven't shown too much here, so that's what today's post is about :D

I've been focusing on scrapping my photos from our xmas vacation in the Orlando area, so that eventually I can print them and make an album.

Me doing what I do best, or most, while at Disney World, scrapped with Your Sweet Smile by Jen Yurko:

Cedric in front of the troll in the Norway pavillion of Epcot, scrapped with Oh Snap by jen Yurko

The three of us and my parents with Mickey and the Gang at Epcot, scrapped with The Pretenders by Jen Yurko and Triple J Designs:

And finally, my little dude on our way to Christmas mass, all dressed up and with the most gorgeous smile, scrapped with Indigo by Artgal Style:

It's amazing how many more layouts I have to do to cover the whole vacation, but I love scrapping them and reliving the happy moments :D

Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think!

Vintage with a twist

Back for a little P52!

This week's prompt was "vintage". Now vintage is definitely not my style. It's not for clothing, or jewelry. It's even less when it comes to home decor and furniture.

I do own a couple of vintage things though, depending how widely you define the concept. I wear a pair of boots that belonged to my Mom, bought in the late 70s. And I am very lucky to have a beautiful diamond ring that was passed down from mother to daughter over 4 generations, from my great-grandmother to me. It was bought in Paris in the late 20s or early 30s but looks quite modern.

But as I try to keep my photos representative of our life at the time they were taken, as well as following the prompts, I decided to stretch the concept a little.

It just so happens that the word "vintage" is on a couple of the souvenirs I brought back from Florida. So I decided to take a photo of them all together (even though some are definitely not vintage...).

The bags, which cost a couple bucks each at Publix, are a "vintage" design and you can see the word "vintage" on them :D

The rest was actual Disney Parks merchandise. I bought Cedric the snow globe because he likes turning them and looking at the sparkles fall. It's sort of vintage as it has Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia... And my wallet (my  beautiful, expensive new wallet) has a vintagey feel to it too with the black and white hand-drawn Mickey and Minnie! The Disney family car stickers are not vintage at all, though, but too bad so sad, I wasn't going to take a photo of the souvenirs and leave one out, lol.

This week's prompt is "bright" and I still don't have a photo or the slightest idea what to photograph... I don't do "Photography", I do everyday life memory pics with my phone, so playing with the light and taking a gorgeous artistic photo is out... Now I have to think of a bright idea (get it? "bright" idea of something "bright"! lol).

Guilty Green Model: 3 weeks in one

Here are three weeks' worh of Project 52 rolled into one!

A couple weeks ago, I was feeling overwhelmed, inadequate and useless (which led me to not post week 9 even though I had the photo). Then hubby decided that we just really needed a break from routine, winter and everyday autism hurdles. So we packed up the car and just left for Florida!

We literally decided that between 6pm and 8:30pm, started packing and we were on the road at 10am the next morning! The timing was great because we really needed the change and March break was coming but also because that would allow us to surprise Hubby's father with our arrival on his 60th birthday. We pulled it off: he was surprised and happy, the trip went really well, we had beautiful sunny weather, and we soaked up the sun and all the Disney World we could manage.

With all that, I didn't use my laptop (it was impossible on the 6 days on the road, and I just didn't feel like it during our 5 days of vacation). So I didn't post week 10 either and I didn't make a conscious effort to take the pictures I was supposed to, but as it turns out, our trip provided the right photos anyways!

Now here are the prompts from March To December's Project 52 (and as you see they explain my weird post title):

Week 9: Guilty Pleasure

Week 10: Something Green

Week 11: Role Model

I struggled with finding my guilty pleasure.

I thought of food, but being on a fairly healthy diet, even though I love food in general, I didn't really have anything to be guilty about in that department.

I thought of my love of all things Disney. I could have gone with that because it is childish, and I do end up spending money on the souvenirs. But of listening to the music, watching the movies, going to the parks, etc. I am not ashamed at all. And as this was prior to this trip and the last couple times we went to the parks I didn't really spend that much on souvenirs, I didn't think it was a great representation. If it had been last week instead, I would show you my new wallet :D

I ended up choosing to document my love of all things Lush (a company that makes bath bombs, bubble bars, soaps, ...). I usually get them for gifts, so to be honest I don't feel that guilty about them either. But I do tend to like useful gifts, like clothes and shoes, or things for the house, so they do feel like more of an indulgence! So here's a photo of one of my bubble bars right before I got into the tub of beautifully scented and coloured warm water :D

 I had not taken my photo before we left for the trip, so on the road I kept thinking "I need something green!". And as my little man fell asleep like an angel and I placed the neck pillow to prevent his head from falling, I got my photo of the week!

I really like that it's really representative of our week, and the fact that it's an alligator and we were on our way to Florida :D

I also thought I would struggle with a photo of a role model.

My parents are great role models for the way they made and still make their marriage work, the way they raised my sister and I, the career my Dad chose (which was a passion rather than just a job). They are smart, loving and generous. But they were not available for a photo op, being in France and all...

And I also must admit that while in Florida, I totally forgot about the project prompt.

But last night, looking through our photos as they were transferring onto my computer, I realized I had the perfect photo! A photo of my awesome husband Dave. It was taken on the anniversary of the day we started dating, 13 years ago, which we spent at the Magic Kingdom.

A while ago he made the mistake of telling me he likes Gaston, from Beauty and the Beast and I insisted on getting a photo of him in front of the recent statue of this fun villain in Fantasyland.

I think Dave is a role model to any young man out there. He works very hard to achieve his career and financial goals but does it without ever compromising his integrity by stepping on people's toes, and as a financial advisor, he always does what's best for the client rather than what would make him the most money.

He practices Jiu Jitsu in the playful and gentle way that Gracie Jiu Jitsu promotes. He could use his size and strength to show off to others, but he tries instead to use technique and skill and always tries to grow. I also always admire his lack of competitiveness in sports. He does not mind when others win or are better than him at one thing or another. He tries to be the best he can be and grow, he sees himself as his competitor rather than others and he can be truly happy for others when they achieve something rather than be jealous.

But most of all, he is a role model as a husband and father. He's a great cook and gets right in the kitchen to make supper when he gets home from work rather than expect the meal to be on the table. He works hard to take care of our family financially. He spoils me often with toys and bling (and I do love jewelry...).

And he is the greatest Dad to Cédric! A lot of fathers struggle with an autism diagnosis. Instead, he researches constantly to find ways we can help our son. He gives hugs and kisses, he gets on all four to play, he gives Cédric his bath, he puts him to bed every night and he changes diapers! His fair share! Maybe even more! I love that in him the way La'Shawn loves that her hubby does the dishes ;)

So here he is in front of a character which he resembles in physical traits, but he is much more Beast turned Prince than he is Gaston in personality :D

And I love that in this picture, Cédric looks up to him like the great role model he is :D

Wow, did I ever ramble on in this post, lol

I guess I felt like sharing more than just photos today. I hope some of you out there stuck with me!

Next week: vintage! Come back to see what I come up with!

Happiness is...

As usual, I am being a blogger copycat! La'Shawn is as always my inspiration, because she always picks projects that seem fun to me, and because I like joining in what she does, so that she learns about me what I learn about her :D

So I'm joining in Second Chances Girl's "#30 things that I want my kids to know" challenge.

I don't really plan on doing them all, to be honest. Partly because I just won't have time, and partly because some don't speak to me for one reason or another.

You can find La'Shawn's blog here with her participation in this challenge and much more, and the original challenge here.

I'm starting with the second prompt, because at the moment, trying to make a list of 20 things about me seems like too much. I'm also choosing the second one because it's about what makes you happy and I've been in a foul negative mood and it would do me good (and people around me) to focus on the positive :D

So here are 5 things that make me most happy right now:

1. The first one is fairly obvious, as it must be for any mother. My son Cédric makes me happy. But more specifically, his smiles and his hugs. There are moments when he makes me less than happy... But a genuine smile from him can light up a whole room, and his is the best hugger ever!!

Need proof?

Here's a smile:

And here's a hug:

2. The second thing that makes me happy is digital scrapbooking. I've been doing it for years now and I've had times when I struggled, felt stuck, didn't have time or really just didn't feel like doing it. But right now, I'm really enjoying scrapping. Partly because of being on a new team for Jen Yurko and playing with really fun new goodies, partly because I'm scrapping mostly my Disney photos and that brings me back to very happy moments, like this one of my birthday:

3. The third thing that comes to mind is Jiu Jitsu. When I started, I thought I would complete the self-defence women's program and call it a day. But now that I have my pink belt, I still really enjoy learning new techniques just for the fun of it. It's an hour where I socialize with people there and really don't think at all about all the stuff I have to do or anything that worries me.

4. The fourth thing is my regular date nights with hubby. Every two weeks minimum, we go out for a meal and a movie. It's nice to be together, relaxing, eating without having to cook or clean. And we've always enjoyed movies, so it's nice after a few years of not going very often, to be able to catch most of the movies we want to see on the big screen! I guess I should add that I'm happy about respite funds and great respite workers.

This photo is of a special date night we had in November to a murder-mystery party with a fairy-tale theme (we were The Beast turned back to prince and a Fairy-Godmother):

5. The fifth thing that makes me really happy and even excited is the prospect of upcoming trips. I'm really tired of winter and bored of the town we live in. But I'm lucky enough to have things to look forward to in that department. Next week we're taking a short trip to southern Ontario for a medical appointment for Cédric. That's not really exciting, but it'll break the routine a bit.

In early April, though, hubby and I are going to be spending a week in Lisbon, Portugal, for an all expenses paid work conference! We're staying at the Four Seasons, making excursions to Sintra and Cascais, visiting palaces and eating in cool restaurants and the guest speaker is Colonel Chris Hadfield, the canadian astronaut who was commander of the International Space Station.

Then in early May, we're making a super quick escapade to Toronto for a Jiu Jitsu seminar with Rener Gracie and as luck would have it, the Lion King Musical comes back on stage a couple days later and we're going to go see it :D

At some point in the summer, we'll have our annual cottage week-end reunion with our friends from southern Ontario, which is always a super relaxing, music-filled, too much food, campfire and river swims kind of time:

And finally this summer, we're going back to Orlando, mainly to try hyperbaric treatments for Cédric, but also to make very good use of our annual passes to Walt Disney World :D :D

And boom, just like that, I'm happy!!

Lazy week

Hubby went out of town for 3 days at the end of this week. As always when that happens, I try to take it easy to some degree to keep my energy for taking care of The Dude, especially in case he wakes up in the middle of the night.

So I worked Tuesday, but other than that, I felt pretty useless and lazy and found myself doing things, but inefficiently and I wasted A LOT of time on Pinterest. Instead of blogging!
I did end up having en eventful Friday. It was -48 outside with the windchill, so my car didn't start... I had to drive hubby's truck which is huge and I had never driven before, to take Cédric to IBI. Then back home, I had to choose between taking the truck again later or boost my vehicle. So I grabbed my cables and successfully boosted my car with his truck, without dying (but man did I freeze). I was so cold the toilet seat felt warm :D

So at the very last minute, here is my photo for this week's March2December P52:

The prompt was silhouette, and it immediately made me think of those cut portraits they make at Disney World. And as my son has an amazing profile, I thought it would be perfect. So while he went back and forth from his favourite chair to his snack, passing in front of the sunny window, I took a few shots. I would have prefered them to turn out darker and I might increase the contrast if I print one or scrap it, but I do love the result!

Next week is guilty pleasure, for which I have my photo, but I had a very hard time coming up with something...